News Round-Up: October 28, 2011

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Today’s Essential Reads

FRACKING:

Brindisi: Keep hydrofracking Away From Hinckley Reservoir

State Assemblyman Anthony Brindisi, D-Utica, is calling on the Hinckley Reservoir and surrounding areas to be exempt from hydraulic fracturing.

Fracking for Natural Gas Underneath NY Delayed

The state Department of Environmental Conservation has indicated it will not meet a deadline for an advisory report on fracking. As a result, the expectation that drilling permits would be issued next year seems in doubt.

U.S. EPA Delays Rule on Fracking Emissions by a Month

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency said it will delay by a month final standards on emissions from hydraulic fracturing, its third postponement of air pollution rules since early September.

Hazardous Hydrofracking in America

Hydraulic fracking involves using pressurized fluids to fracture rock layers to release oil, gas, coal seam gas, or other substances.

BP OIL SPILL:

Researchers: BP Oil Spill May Have Contributed to Gulf of Mexico Dolphin Deaths

Five of the more than 500 dolphins that have washed ashore dead along the Gulf Coast from Florida to Texas over the past two years died from a bacterial infection called Brucella, federal scientists announced Thursday.

Drilling Permit in Hand, BP Poised to Return to Operations in the Gulf of Mexico

BP is back – back in the Gulf of Mexico, that is. Wednesday, the federal government issued the international oil giant its first drilling permit since the company’s Macondo well blew out in 5,000 feet of water in April, 2010. That incident killed eleven, spawned the largest oil spill in U. S. history, and sent a drillship worth more than half a billion dollars to the bottom.

Hastings: It’s Taking Too Long for Oil Spill Victims to Get Paid

Although a year and a half has passed since a BP rig dumped millions of gallons of crude oil into the Gulf of Mexico, the disaster’s victims are still waiting for reimbursement.

Government Rapidly Depleting Deepwater Horizon Cleanup Fund, GAO Finds

Continued federal funding of the BP oil spill cleanup effort may leave the government unable to address future spills, according to a new Government Accountability Office report.

RADIATION:

Fukushima Crisis: Gobs of Radioactive Contamination

This chart from ENE news shows how radiation levels were going sky high as things were blowing up, burning, and spouting out enormous plumes of radioactive steam. Although they were concentrating on spraying the blasted wreckage of unit 3 with water, it wasn’t until they finally deployed a giant concrete pump, dubbed the “giraffe” to fill the pool back up with new water that the cesium levels dropped off by a lot.

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Stuart H. Smith is an attorney based in New Orleans fighting major oil companies and other polluters.
Cooper Law Firm

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